$2k - console or channel strip?

I have a 16 X 16 Studiomaster Series II MIDI console used in conjunction with Digital Performer and a MOTU 2408 interface. I don't really have any mic pres other than the board. I have $2K to upgrade. I really need more input channels (24 at least, 32 would be awesome) AND I'd like a higher quality input path (and mix path for that matter - I mix back through analog as well). I was hoping to kill two birds wth one stone by buying a better, bigger mixer with higher quality mic pres & eq than are in the Studiomaster, but like everyone else I guess I'm finding it difficult to find anything in the market for $2K that would be a significant upgrade to what I've got. Any leads/pointers/advice to such a beast? Maybe I'm dreaming holding out for a $2K board? Alternatively, I guess I'm looking at a Langevin Dual Vocal Combo, which would be wonderful, but after "suffering" through my last mix project with only 16 inputs I'm torn. Opinions? Advice? I do mostly indie modern rock, with some acoustic singer/songwriter stuff as well.

I'd suggest using less tracks and getting a nice mic pre, maybe with a compressor and eq combo, or maybe just the pre.
Get good at recording a few tracks, and being sure of yourself when you commit to a bouncedown.
16 tracks should be plenty for indie rock.

I had the same thought as Bob- if you really need more than 16 tracks, submix some stereo pairs before you get out of the computer. BG vocals, guitar layers, whatever. Get the Waves plugins, and you probably won't be all that concerned with not having your console EQ and such available for those submixes. I would probably vote for a Great River, as it's a very good sounding, clean mic pre that won't 'stack' it's tone too much over the course of a bunch of tracks. I've got the Langevin, BTW- it's great, but it's definitely got a tone, and I don't know if I would use it on everything- it'd be harder to seperate everything out on mixdown, IMO.

Alternatively, Fletcher says the old Yamaha PM1000's have great mic pre's and summing buses, and you should be able to find a 24 or 32x4 for under a grand.